It’s Friday, which means two things: giving the week the finger and new music! Tune in every Friday for The Pit’s round-up of new releases, from singalong hard rock to pus-drenched underground death metal. Keep those ears bleeding!
Rob Zombie, The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy (Nuclear Blast)
For fans of: Coal Chamber, Wednesday 13, ‘90s Alice Cooper
Standout track: “The Satanic Rites of Blacula”
These days, Rob Zombie albums are like meals at your favorite restaurant chain: you want to know what you’re getting, because you want to actually like it. The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy is no different, offering big, distorted, southern-fried arena metal tracks about monsters, spacemen, and shaking asses. The album has some solid surprises — “Crow Killer Blues” is an ultra-heavy doom crusher, “Boom-Boom-Boom” revels in low-key shadows, and “The Satanic Rites of Blacula” has some believable ‘70s nastiness to it — but none are so shocking as to make you wonder what happened. Once again, Zombie delivers, and if you dig him, you’ll dig this.
Eyehategod, A History of Nomadic Behavior (Century Media)
For fans of: GG Allin, Bongripper, Acid Bath
Standout track: “Three Black Eyes”
Look, if you came to a new Eyehategod record to finally hear the band perform freeform jazz songs about life turning out okay, you’re shit out of luck. History continues the NOLA sludge pioneers’ tradition of making everything gross and brutal, and it does so extremely well. Even with the production value a little cleaner than that of albums like Take As Needed for Pain, this record gets across the band’s water-damaged MO incredibly well. Get sick.
Demiser, Through the Gate Eternal (Boris Records)
For fans of: Midnight, Nifelheim, Hellripper
Standout track: “Offering”
Fuck, man, albums don’t get much better than this. We may be living through a moment in metal where grit and commentary are at the forefront via acts like Code Orange and Power Trip, but Demiser are here to remind us that kickass riff-fests about the fucking Devil are what keep the fires burning in our hearts. Riffs that blaze, drums that gallop, big-ass choruses about blood and blasphemy — Through the Gate Eternal has it all and then some. 2021 needed this album.
The Crown, Royal Destroyer (Metal Blade)
For fans of: The Haunted, Bloodbath, Nightrage
Standout track: “Let The Hammering Begin!”
If Demiser are the new talent in the world of kicking ass with fast-as-fuck metal, than The Crown are officially the old guard keeping that tradition alive. The Swedish death-thrash crew are back in fine form on Royal Destroyer, a record whose title and cover are as brilliantly old-school as the songs thereon. There’s plenty of modern crunch on these muscular anthems — the band came about in the days when bad production value wasn’t yet fetishized — but the attitude behind them is pure nail-studded bicep gauntlet. The race never ends.
Varmia, bal Lada (M-Theory Audio)
For fans of: Enslaved, Wolves In The Throne Room, Vreid
Standout track: “ruja”
A band like Varmia reminds you that for all the historical wood carvings and mystic Frey worship that goes around, being a Viking involved a lot looking at the campfire and thinking about how the sword will feel when it enters your guts. The band’s music is heavy on the death metal, but still maintains that primal, ancient-world vibe throughout which black metal is best known for. Best listened to in the woods, shortly before one’s own violent demise.
Other crushers:
- Gizmachi, Omega Kaleid (Self-released)
- Enforced, Kill Grid (Century Media)
- Pupil Slice, Mirrors (Prosthetic)
- Marianas Rest, Fata Morgana (Napalm)
- Sepulcros, Vazio (Transcending Obscurity)
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Words by Chris Krovatin
